


Cline

by Kaillingme (Setty94)



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Gen, Junmyeon's Birthday Week 2020, M/M, Mild Horror, but i'd need more than 1k words to make that work, its hinted sukai
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:01:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24370981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Setty94/pseuds/Kaillingme
Summary: Mermaids didn’t have tails or long flowing hair. Mermaids weren’t pretty nor were they graceful on land. Mermaids were alien and strange.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11
Collections: Challenge #2 — Merfolk





	Cline

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Thank you to Mod N who has been so sweet and accomodating with me! I've had this idea floating around for a while now but never put it into words until now~ I hope you all enjoy ^^

Junmyeon sat on the edge of the dock, staring down into the water. Darkness swirled beneath the smooth surface, a darkness that called to him. He’d been told not to swim in the lake, so he stared at it instead. Ripples from fish breaching to gulp oxygen were the only disruptions in the murky surface. They were infrequent and small, but they kept Junmyeon entertained while he sat there. 

How long it’d been since he first walked to the end of the dock, Junmyeon wasn’t sure. But the sun was beginning to set and that meant he needed to leave. Those who strayed too close to the lake at night never came back. Or they never existed.

The wood groaned when Junmyeon stood up. He shook out his legs before walking back to the small cabin his family called home without looking back. He wasn’t supposed to look back. Those that did never returned.

The night was cool for late summer. Usually it was hot and sticky enough for Junmyeon’s thin cotton shirt to cling to his skin, but not tonight. As the last beams of light left the sky, the frogs began croaking. They sounded forlorn like they were singing for their mate that had passed long ago. Junmyeon’s chest ached.

Inside the cabin it was warmer. Junmyeon’s mother had started the fire in the hearth and his father was already drinking soju at the dinner table. This was normal for his family. Yet at the same time, Junmyeon felt like something was missing. He sighed as he shut the door and toed off his shoes, feeling this strange emotion brewing deep within.

🌊

It was a flower he never smelled, a stone he’d never picked up. It was a color he’d never seen and yet knew the name to. It was a feeling he couldn’t shake.

It was a voice. It was a voice. It was a voice. 

_ ‘Wake up, Junmyeon.’ _

It was Jongin’s voice. 

But who was he to Junmyeon?

🌊

Junmyeon opened his eyes to the bright rays of the sun shining on his face. He stared at his bare ceiling, counting the stalks of the palms like he always did. He’d had a dream last night, but he couldn’t remember it. It lingered just out of his grasp like they always did. He sighed and got ready for the day.

Hours later, Junmyeon was back on the dock. Sitting next to his father, holding a pole in his hands and waiting. Fishing was a game of patience. A test of the human ability to simply wait. Fishing was something Junmyeon both liked and disliked. It was quiet and it allowed him to be on the dock for a long time, but it also felt extremely complacent to wait for prey to come to him.

_ A flash in his mind brought him underwater. Silver, blue, and gold twinkling in the spattering of sunlight through thick aquatic plants. There! The fish hovered, unaware of the danger that lurked... _

Junmyeon’s father had given up talking to him, instead opting for voicing his thoughts aloud every so often. He commented on the clouds, the stillness of the lake, and sometimes the sun. But mostly he just hummed. It was a song that Junmyeon had never heard before, but had been told it was his favorite as a child.

Sometime in the evening, Junmyeon’s father caught a fish. But he missed it because he was staring at the pair of eyes he saw lurking beneath the surface. They were yellow, pupils cut like slits, and unblinking. They reminded him of something, something he’d been yearning for, but Junmyeon couldn’t place his finger on it.

He went to bed that night with their image burned on the back of his eyelids and tingling in his hands. 

Something was coming.

🌊

When the webbing between Junmyeon’s fingers appeared during his biweekly bath, he should’ve alerted his parents. But instead he picked at the skin, tearing it away painlessly. His hands looked like they’d gotten a bad sunburn, peeling around the insides of his fingers and his palms, but his feet were much worse off. In the time it’d taken Junmyeon to clean himself, the webbing between his toes had thickened, growing capillaries and veins. It hurt too much to tear away, so he left it.

🌊

The first dip into the lake water felt like fire. Junmyeon knew he wasn’t supposed to be here, but his parents had gone to bed long ago and he felt the itch in his feet. They led him to the dock and he did the rest, dangling off the edge and skimming the surface with his webbed toes. It felt like fire, but the fire burned just right.

He let his feet sink lower, casting a quick look back to the cabin one last time. He wasn’t supposed to look back, but he did.

The cabin was dilapidated, empty, and decrepit. Not a single touch of the living remained.

_ “Come back to me!” _

Junmyeon felt something pull him deeper, but he didn’t panic. That emptiness he’d been feeling was slowly being filled with the murky water of the lake. He breathed in deep, fire burning his lungs away, fire pouring into every orifice. And the fire burned so right.

🌊

Mermaids didn’t have tails or long flowing hair. Mermaids weren’t pretty nor were they graceful on land. Mermaids were alien and strange. Their mouths were too big for their faces, filled with rows upon rows of sharp teeth.

Mermaids weren’t the things of fairy tales. No, they were the forgotten nightmares that roamed the deep. And Junmyeon was one of them.

**Author's Note:**

> If you've reached this far thank you! I'd love to expand on this a bit more in the future~ If you're interested in that lmk know below ^^


End file.
